Page 386 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 12 February 2013
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MR CORBELL: In relation to other measures that have been taken in the courts, of course the government has undertaken significant legislative reform to change the workload of respective courts. For example, there have been increases in jurisdiction of the Magistrates Court in relation to civil matters, there have been changes in relation to how summary offences are dealt with and there have been changes around election processes between the two jurisdictions. These are the types of measures that need to be continuously considered. I can, of course, foreshadow that the government has made election commitments around the establishment of an industrial magistrates court. As part of our development of the detail of that, and the detail of how that election commitment will be implemented, we will have to give consideration to the jurisdiction of that court as well.
National Multicultural Festival—success
MS BERRY: My question is to the Minister for Multicultural Affairs. Can the minister inform the Assembly of the success of last week’s centenary Multicultural Festival in promoting and welcoming our multicultural community?
MADAM SPEAKER: The Minister for Multicultural Affairs will be able to speak at length about how successful the program is.
MS BURCH: I could speak for more than four minutes on the success of the National Multicultural Festival, and I would hope that those opposite—
Members interjecting—
MADAM SPEAKER: Order, please! Mr Smyth, you need to keep the volume down so that Ms Burch can be heard.
MS BURCH: The National Multicultural Festival, our centenary National Multicultural Festival, has been considered an outstanding success. For those opposite who did attend—I know I saw Mrs Jones there; she was the only one I did see there.
Mr Doszpot: I was there Saturday and Sunday, thank you.
MS BURCH: I am glad to hear that, Mr Doszpot. This is successful because it is part and parcel of our community. It is driven by our community, with over 100 community associations coming through and being part of it. Across the seven stages there were community groups, the sons and daughters of our neighbourhoods performing their national cultural dances and songs. That is what makes it absolutely spectacular. It is not a group from the outside coming in and performing to us; it is our community performing for us and with us.
Over the weekend, as I have indicated in response to some of the earlier interest on this, early figures indicate that we exceeded last year’s figures, so we are looking at about 250,000 or 260,000, which is quite extraordinary given the population of the ACT. But the success should not be counted just on sheer numbers alone. It was the vibrancy, the feel and the response from the community as they moved through the
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